


The Third Christmas

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: M/M, Sentinel Secret Santa 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-14 01:14:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9150319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: Jim has never liked Christmas... so he always volunteers to work at Christmas so that a man with a young family can get the day off.





	

**Author's Note:**

> For stoneygirl77. 
> 
> Many thanks to Nat for the beta

The Third Christmas

By Bluewolf

Jim's mother disappeared two weeks before Christmas, the year he was eight. Sally, the housekeeper, did her best to keep things as 'normal' as possible for Jim and six-year-old Steve, but Jim was just too old not to notice the terrible gap at the table, the conspicuous lack of a carefully chosen present from Mom.

Subsequently he was aware, from overhearing one or two phone calls, that his father knew where his mom was, but that she no longer wanted to know her Ellison family. And after a year or two even those phone calls stopped.

And Christmas - once a time of fun and laughter, when even his work-driven father relaxed - became a time of deep misery, a time he would have avoided if he possibly could. But it arrived on 25th December every year, like clockwork, and every year Jim resigned himself to a depressed and depressing several days when everyone else in the world except the Ellisons seemed to be having fun.

Things improved after he was old enough to join the army. Yes, Christmas still arrived on schedule, but while many of the men received cards and even presents from home, quite a few didn't. The time of year was no big deal; patrols still had to be made, routine duties still had to be carried out.

While he was stranded in Peru, he knew - academically - that Christmas had come and gone twice, but Christmas meant nothing to the Chopec; the concept was completely foreign to them.

After eighteen months with the Chopec, though, he was tired, and when rescue arrived he was at first pleased to return home... and, his period of enlistment expired, content to take the honorable discharge he was due.

After briefly considering his future, he went to the Police Academy at Olympia before taking up a job with Cascade PD. But as December inexorably approached, he began to think longingly of his time in Peru when - basically - December didn't exist. And - knowing he could never return to them - he deliberately put his time with the Chopec out of his mind. And at the same time, suppressed his heightened senses.

***

Several years passed. Eventually his senses resurfaced; he met and started working with an outgoing, energetic grad student who knew all about heightened senses and how best to control them. Working with Blair was sometimes frustrating - he felt that Blair's testing of his senses was unnecessary, but the grad student finally managed to make him understand that if he wanted to use his senses in the most effective manner possible, he had to know how to control them.

And over the next few months Jim began to realize that he had been suffering from a degree of depression ever since that terrible Christmas thirty years earlier. With Blair's patient encouragement, he began to take an interest in life, rather than going through life with the grim determination to succeed at all costs that his father had drummed into him, and much to his surprise discovered that he actually had friends - real friends, not just people he knew that he called 'friend'.

And he had begun to enjoy - actively enjoy - holidays and weekends off, although having one in December was still something he hated even considering.

***

Their first year together, Blair had asked Jim what he usually did at Christmas.

Jim had shrugged dismissively. "Never really felt the need to bother," he said. "I usually volunteer to work Patrol so that a man with a young family can get the time off."

"Okay," Blair said cheerfully.

He had given Jim a small, inexpensive gift - not enough to make the older man feel embarrassed at not having given him anything, passing it off as a 'thank you for letting me stay more than a week' token, and without saying anything else had simply joined Jim in the Patrol car.

The following year Blair did it again, but this time Jim gave Blair a small gift as well before they headed out to start their three-day stint in a Patrol car.

As their third Christmas working together approached, the weather - which had been cold but unusually dry - suddenly changed in the early morning of the 24th.

It couldn't be called a blizzard; there was no wind. But the snow fell and fell, and the weight of traffic pressing down on it quickly turned the roads into sheets of ice, despite everything the two available snowplows could do. Quite simply, Cascade was not prepared for a serious fall of snow. Although it did have two snowplows, Cascade's municipal authority didn't expect to need them; as close to the sea as the city was, it got plenty of rain, but a bad snowfall was a rarity.

***

Jim drove very carefully to the PD, and he and Blair reported to Captain Brewster for the first of their three days with Patrol.

"I don't like sending anyone out on a day like this," Brewster admitted, "but there are always accidents. People driving too fast for the conditions, or youngsters not long passed their test who just don't know how to allow for the conditions. Time on a skid pan while they're learning should be mandatory, but..." He shrugged. "Even pedestrians slipping on the ice and breaking a leg - wouldn't be the first time a Patrol car has taken a pedestrian to the hospital so that ambulances are left free to deal with more serious accidents.

"You'd think people would stay at home under these conditions, or that businesses would have some kind of 'Don't come to work' arrangement for really bad weather, or even be closed for the holiday, but no - and then we have to pick up the pieces."

Jim nodded. "I don't think my speed ever went above ten when I was driving in," he said. "I can't see me wanting to go faster than that whatever happens."

"I just wish more members of the public had that much sense," Brewster muttered. He looked from one to the other. "I really do appreciate you giving your holiday entitlement to two of my young officers every year, and on a year like this... when you could be safe at home rather than risking your necks in these conditions... "

"Neither of us have any dependents," Jim said. "The men we're giving our time to have wives and young families."

Brewster simply nodded again, and gave them their instructions for the day. They left his office and headed to the Patrol garage to collect a car.

***

Conditions had been bad when they were driving to the PD; when they left, barely half an hour later, the roads seemed much worse. Or perhaps it was just the difference between being in a truck and being in a car.

The city's two snowplows were scattering grit on the main roads, which helped those a little - until the still-falling snow covered the grit, but too many people, shops and businesses were on side roads, and cars were slithering helplessly on those.

But it was too much to hope that they would be able to stay on the gritted main streets. A call came in when they were nearly an hour into their morning - two cars had skidded into each other and there were injuries.

Jim eased his way along the street involved, and soon came on the two cars. He judged that both had been traveling too quickly for the conditions; checked the injuries, called to confirm that an ambulance would be needed then waited until a tow truck arrived to clear the two vehicles.

They set off again.

The streets seemed quieter - as if a lot of drivers had finally decided that 'home' was a better option. Or perhaps a lot of them had reached their place of work... in which case the mayhem would start again when it was time for them to go home.

Jim was driving at a steady speed along one of the ungritted side streets when he saw an approaching car. It was driving a little faster than he was, but not excessively fast... and then just as it reached them it seemed to hit something, the rear end swung around and smashed into the driver's side of the Patrol car. The two vehicles slid sideways and backwards for a few feet before coming to a halt.

Blair took a deep breath. "Jim?"

There was no answer. He looked at his friend, and saw him pinned against the back of his seat by the steering wheel, his head drooping forward. Blair gasped, glanced towards the other car and saw that its driver, too, was slumped in his seat. He reached for the radio.

"Dispatch!" he gasped.

***

Although he was desperate to go with Jim to the hospital, Blair realized he should go back to the PD and tell Brewster what had happened, so after the two damaged cars had been picked up he asked the crew of the Patrol car that had attended the scene to take him back to the PD. John Finney and Rube Olsen, knowing that Blair and Jim had been doing a stint on Patrol to let two men with families get the time off, made no objection.

"Tell Ellison how sorry we are that he was hurt doing two of our squad a good turn," Finney added.

Blair gave a watery smile. "I'll be sure to tell him. Thanks."

Back at the PD Blair reported to Captain Brewster, explaining what had happened. "It would have been all right if something hadn't thrown the other car into a spin," he finished.

"Is Ellison badly hurt?"

"I don't know. He was unconscious when they took him away. His ribs could have been damaged - he wasn't bleeding from the mouth or nose, though, so I'd guess his lungs are okay. But he won't be fit to do the other two days, I'm sorry."

"The way you're speaking, you're still willing to come in?"

"Bad enough that one of your men won't get the time off after all," Blair muttered.

"Although what you really want is to spend the time with your partner," Brewster said. "Sandburg, I understand, and I won't ask it of you. Go. Report to Captain Banks, then go to the hospital. Sit with your partner. He'll want to know, as soon as he regains consciousness, that you're all right."

"Thanks, sir. I... hope we'll see you again next year."

"One of these years Ellison really needs to take the holiday off himself," Brewster told him. "Can't you persuade him to do that?"

"I don't know," Blair said. "He always says he feels the men with young families need the time off more than the unmarried ones... but I don't think he likes this time of year much. I think he's happier working."

From there Blair went to Major Crime, where he told Simon what had happened, and almost before he had time to finish, Simon was ushering him down to the police garage and into his car.

Most of the trip to Cascade General was on main roads that had just been gritted for the third time that day, but even so Simon drove very carefully. Once they got there, it was to find that Jim hadn't regained consciousness but wasn't considered in immediate danger; and the doctor treating him, knowing the close relationship between Jim and Blair, had left instructions that Blair could remain with Jim as long as he wanted.

***

Having ascertained that Jim wasn't in any immediate danger, Simon left after a few minutes to return to the PD. Blair sat beside Jim, and once they were alone, reached out and took possession of the hand that wasn't attached to a drip.

"Come on, Jim," he murmured softly. "Come back to me. You're safely off those icy roads, and I don't care what you normally do at this time of year, you're definitely taking two or three days off after this! Apart from going home, we're not setting foot outside until all the ice has melted. We've got plenty of food in so we don't even have to do a grocery run.  at

"You're scaring me here, Jim. The doctor said you weren't seriously hurt - no chest injury even with the steering wheel pushing you against the back of the seat. And while I admit I don't always know what makes you zone out there didn't seem to be anything specific for you to concentrate on in the seconds before that car hit us - unless you were trying to see what made him skid. Is that what it was, Jim?"

There was no answer.

Blair carried on talking, sure that he was dealing with a zone out - whatever had caused it - that was somehow deeper than usual. Eventually he paused to take a drink from the glass of water sitting beside Jim. Although it was intended for Jim, he was sure his friend wouldn't grudge him something to moisten his throat, dry as it was getting from his non-stop talking.

"Blr... "

"Jim? How're you feeling, man?"

Silence for a moment, then, "Why'd you make me c'm back?"

Now that was worrying... "Jim, you weren't actually hurt. Yes, the steering wheel pushed you backwards a little, a very little, but it didn't do any damage. But something made you pass out. Were you trying to see what made that other car skid?"

"Jus'... wan'ed to sleep through the nex' coupla days... " Jim blinked, torn between his wish to miss the next two days and his wish not to worry his Guide.

"You don't like this time of year, do you?" Blair murmured.

"No. What I say, 'bout giving men with young kids the time, is honest, but... but I don' know I'd have thought about it if... "

"If?"

"My Mom walked out jus' before Chris'm's... the year I was eight. We never saw her again."

"Oh, Jim!" Blair tightened his grip on Jim's hand. "Her loss, man. Yes, yours too, but in the long run - totally her loss."

"'ve never really... 'spected anyone else to stay for long. 'Specially around this time of year."

"I'm here, Jim. I'm here, I love you, and unless you throw me out I won't leave you."

"But you'll... finish your diss, get your PhD... and then what?"

"I don't know, but what I do know is that I won't leave you. I'm your guide. I realize you don't need me much, now - not as much as you did when we first met - but according to everything I know, the sentinel/guide bond is for life, even if it's only 'just in case'...

"Now - I'd better tell the nurses you're awake. See if you can get home tonight... and then call Simon for a lift. He'll be glad to know you've come round... And no, I won't tell him you passed out just so you could avoid Christmas by sleeping through it."

Jim returned his smile a little shakily.

***

With no medical reason to keep Jim in and Blair pointing out that he'd be there to keep an eye on his friend, Jim was released; Simon came and drove them home (at some point during the afternoon the snow had stopped falling so the streets were at least no worse than they had been).

As he dropped them off, Simon said, "I hope you're not planning on working tomorrow."

"No," Blair said. "I won't let him. Although he wasn't actually hurt, he was badly shaken. He needs a couple of days to relax and get over it."

"Do you know anything about the condition of the other driver?"

"Yes, I did ask before we left the hospital. He's badly shaken too, as well as breaking his leg," Blair said. "He doesn't know what made him skid like that. If we hadn't been there, he'd probably have slid right round in a circle and then just driven on... "

Simon nodded. "Ice does funny things," he said, and drove off.

Blair kept a firm eye on Jim as they made their cautious way across the sidewalk and into 852. Once indoors and with firm footing, Jim turned towards the stairs. Blair glanced at him, decided that Jim knew what he was doing and followed.

Once they were in the loft, however, Jim lost no time in sinking into one of the sofas. He leaned back with a sigh of relief. Blair headed for the kitchen and switched on the kettle. "Coffee?" he asked.

Jim nodded. As Blair busied himself making coffee for Jim and tea for himself, he asked quietly, "Did you ever find out why your Mom left?"

"No. Dad knew where she was - he phoned her once or twice. The last call I overheard... I was ten. He was trying to persuade her to look after my brother and me for a week because he had several meetings he needed to attend. She refused. The next time he phoned... a stranger answered, said she'd taken the lease on the apartment and had no idea where the previous tenant had gone. Dad had been paying Mom alimony... but she'd closed her bank account too, and never contacted him with details of another bank. He decided to put the money into an 'alimony' account in case she ever did get back in touch and demanded the money - I think he still does, but after thirty years I don't think she ever will. I think she moved on, maybe married again, possibly even emigrated - I tried looking for her after I joined the police, but... nothing."

"God, Jim - I'm sorry." He took the coffee over, put it down in front of Jim, and settled beside him. He sipped his tea; after a moment Jim took a quick drink of the coffee, then put the mug down again to say quietly,

"You did mean it, Chief? You'll stay? You won't leave me?"

"I won't leave you." He put his cup down and grasped Jim's hand. On a sudden impulse, he raised the hand to his lips and kissed the back of it.

Jim drew a long breath. "Chief... " He freed his hand and put his arm around Blair's shoulders, pulling him close. Blair raised his head to look at Jim's face, to find Jim leaning down. Their lips met in a kiss that was at first tentative but quickly deepened into something urgent.

When, long seconds later, they drew apart, Blair said quietly, "I do love you, Jim. I couldn't leave you."

"Blair... " Jim claimed Blair's mouth again. This time when he raised his head he murmured, "I knew I needed you. I knew I wanted you close. But I was afraid to admit, even to myself, how much I love you."

Blair smiled, and said quietly, "Then let's go upstairs and get undressed... and I'll give you some better memories of Christmas - for this year and always."


End file.
